news and views

… passing by.

Cameras and crews at all vantage points, prepared to capture the latest micro or macro disaster or event. Fearing today's scoop will go to amateurs with cellphones.

Must be tough being pros in news reporting business these days. So much non-pro competition, and so many formats and ways to spread any type of story. “Breaking News” most definitely isn't what it once was…

Commercial players are in the game to catch our attention, increase their popularity, and, as a result: attract paying advertisers and other sponsors.
To achieve this all available means are applied, including to angle and adjust everything they present to us towards their owners' and advertisers' preferences.
End result: tailored news (free and independent press, anyone?) … and we just pass by – you know – to check up on what's going on in our world.

Those of us who do not follow the various news-streams all that closely, may miss out on something here and there. At the end of the day I don't think we miss “lost news stories” all that much though, as that's not where we get most of our news.

click-through alternatives

With so many sources at our finger tips – on and off line, there are plenty to choose from and even more to ignore. The click-through rate can be incredibly high at times, as we search for news about what's really going on in the world.

As for the many alternatives: the most eagerly promoted sources are often the least reliable, and “more mandatory” sources are decidedly unreliable – not to mention often quite slow to deliver and low on actual content.

We also have a high number of copy-cat presenters, contradictors, and aggregators of news available to us, which range from quite good to not worth looking into. The wide range in quality is not surprising, as anyone with the necessary resources can participate in such an activity.

Checking up on news can indeed make for an interesting few minutes, with everything more or less simultaneously available at a click of a button and/or tap on a screen.
If we want to go deeper … well, that is gonna take a little more time, and demand a little more focus. Sometimes it pays, and sometimes it's just a fun passtime activity.

in-depth research

Things that really matter rarely ever show up, or gets debated, in major news-streams and social media. We are mostly fed, and also participate in spreading, less important stuff and lots of distractions. No problem as long as we are aware of how it works.

Letting the buzz pass for what it is, while collecting and analyzing data from reliable sources – including historical ones, is the smart way to fill our need for real and relevant news. Keeps us ahead of what is reported as news, and prepared for what is to come.

Main factor in any serious research, is to not let anyone else be in control of what data to search for and analyze. We must be totally in charge of our own research, and let others take care of theirs.
Rules out use of only one search engine or aggregator, as none are that independent and/or reliable.

Another very important factor is to let collected data speak for themselves, regardless of what they say and whether we like it or not. Data that are being modified, or “massaged”, to fit certain profiles, preconceptions and/or preferences, are totally worthless for anyone who seeks knowledge based on facts.
If you don't like to find out you may be wrong, don't start looking for facts.

That something is found to be true, does not mean it contains the whole truth and nothing but the truth. There is always more data available, somewhere, and one can not call it “in-depth research” unless and until one has made honest attempts at collecting all relevant data.
Sometimes collecting a somewhat complete set of data, takes more than a 15 minutes search…

Warning: practicing in-depth research on life around us, can be addictive. Better start with small doses…

mental exercise

The above is raw mental processing, and all electronic devices are reduced to dumb terminals – which they of course mainly are anyway.

To me it comes natural to sort and process incoming data I find reasons to question the quality of – including but not limited to news and views – as described above. Have done it for as long as I can remember, and rarely ever reflect on the process.

As I have long since concluded that at least 90% of everything really is crud1, the better I can discriminate against the shit, the more time and energy I can set aside for what matters in life.

sincerely georg; sign

Hageland 20.nov.2016
last rev: 24.nov.2016